The 40 Year Old Virgin

I am forced to ask what the genre of this film is. Is it American Pie silly or It's a wonderful life? Meaning, does an experience change a person with a fault in their nature or a point of view that should change for during the film that endeavors also to change ours? Well it certainly is silly as many of the characters simply are silly and could very well have featured in American Pie and we would be happy with their involvement. And it certainly is trying to create a situation to change someone's crisis. It seems pretty obvious then that The 40 year old virgin is about a virgin who is 40 who requires his friends around him to change that for the better. Steve Carrell is Andy Sitzer. A man who finds himself working in an electrical goods store and a virgin at the age of 40. He is very much in the background of this store and is clearly unsuccessful. It then becomes the challenge of his colleagues to push him out of this situation and slowly it works out this way and then a woman called Trish comes along to end it in the best way possible. As you can tell, this film was always going to be silly and it should be expected to be as it is very silly. The humour is very much for an American Pie audience, and the ridiculous amount of swearing only underlines this issue. However the biggest problem with this film is not that there is too much swearing. Nor is it the silly humour. But instead, it is the fact that I seriously do not believe that Steve Carrel, a handsome man who is mature, clever and owns his own home, would ever in real life be a virgin by force. And of course, for him to be changed it needs to be by force, but I watched this film thinking he must have chosen this, not been forced into it. One character said that she would have sex with him in seconds. The film then puts it down to accidents but accidents are not the reason why someone would be a virgin. So you see you find yourself thinking is this just silly or is it trying to say something about being a virgin at 40. That's obviously up to the viewer. Still it will make you laugh and you should enjoy this film. Apatow is a funny man and is backed up by Carrell who is always funny. Worth seeing but tell me what the genre is. Is it American Pie stupid, or is it an It's a Wonderful life thoughtful? I can assure you that it is a great and thoughtful American Pie-like film. Alternatively, if it is meant to be It's a Wonderful Life, it isn't great and sufferd from plot holes that are indeed very noticeable.
***1/2 - Good funny film for an evening in.